Amy Robbins: "I like that suit. Is that what they're wearing in London?"
H.G. Wells: "It was when I left."

An excellent movie. When I first saw the movie the date in the present that the movie occured on was a few days in the future. It made it even more interesting. BTW, the director went on to direct "Star Trek II - The Wrath Of Khan," an excellent movie. I'm not sure if that movie or the recent "Star Trek" is the best movie.

Which was also fun, in a dark sort of way. I certainly enjoyed the antics of the characters, although there are fewer clear-cut resolutions than there usually are in fiction. On the whole, I like the books, and I'm glad I bought them.

I read this years ago, and picked it up when it was recently a freebie, along wit the others in the series.

I must admit that the sympathetic depiction of a paedophile in the first chapters worries me more than it did when I first read it (indeed, I'd forgotten it was there). Perhaps because I now know that this theme has appeared in some of his other books.

In fact, I think it now disturbs me enough that I think I'll abandon this and move on to other things, and write off a few items on my TBR list.

Finished: Kings of the North by Elizabeth Moon. This is a re-read of the second book in the Paladin's Legacy series with Paks still present and so far a secondary character. But one has the suspicion she will come into the foreground a bit more in the third book, Echoes of Betrayal: Paladin's Legacy which will be released in a week. I reread the first two books in the series to get prepared for the release, one I've been looking forward to for quite a while.

Up next: Restless in the Grave by Dana Stabenow, and A Rising Thunder by David Weber. But I'm going to be seriously busy at work for the next week before I go on holiday, so I may well not get these done before the new Paks book is downloaded to my Kindle. But that's OK, I'll get a lot of reading done on holiday.

RAH is my favorite all-time author! I first read him when I was 10 and I don't believe that there's anything he published that I haven't read at least once.

Good to know! I now have several titles by him in my TBR list, so I'll look forward to reading them.

For now, however, I decided to stick with the 'omg, the world is ending' genre and started Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling (also recommended in that older post-apocalyptic thread here on MR -- many thanks to all the contributors!).

I'm about a hundred pages in and it's holding my interest quite well. I think there are 5 or so books in the series -- so far, I only have the first volume.

Last edited by DianNC; 02-17-2012 at 08:17 PM.
Reason: Correct book title

"Greatshadow is the primal dragon of fire, an elemental evil whose malign intelligence spies upon mankind through every candle flame, waiting to devour any careless victim he can claim.

The Church of the Book has assembled a team of twelve battle-hardened adventurers to slay the dragon once and for all. But tensions run high between the leaders of the team who view the mission as a holy duty and the super-powered mercenaries who add power to their ranks, who view the mission primarily as a chance to claim Greatshadow's vast treasure trove. If the warriors fail to slay the beast, will they doom mankind to death by fire?"

the description doesn't do justice to the humor of the book, how absolutely over the top it is nor the fact that the story is told by the disembodied spirit of a drunk. one of the mercenaries has the power to create a straight out of hell stench to nauseate his enemies and the protagonist is a near-invincible woman who is,at the point in the book i'm at, disguised as a robot in a chainmail bikini. it definitely skews somewhat lighter and is definitely a lot of fun.

I notice that a lot (22) of Simak's books have recently released by Gollancz at £4.99. While not extortionate, it's more than I'm willing to pay at the moment. At £2.99 I'd probably pick up two or three of my favourites. If all 22 were offered in a bundle for (say) £35 I'd be very tempted to get the lot. (City cost me $2.70, Worlds Without End $1.70: about £1.90/£1.20)

Up next: Restless in the Grave by Dana Stabenow, and A Rising Thunder by David Weber. But I'm going to be seriously busy at work for the next week before I go on holiday, so I may well not get these done before the new Paks book is downloaded to my Kindle. But that's OK, I'll get a lot of reading done on holiday.

I moved Restless in the Grave to my Audible list, since I have always enjoyed the Shugak books as audio books. Started No Mark Upon Her by Deborah Crombie, the latest Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James novel. I've had it here for a couple of weeks now, and my wife finished and really liked it, so I decided to jump on it and hold the Weber book as incentive. Plus I'm going to need plenty to read next weekend, when we're headed to 3 days of relaxing in the sun, and then I have a week of no work, but lots of conference.

Gosh, I haven't read any Simak in years and years. I vaguely remember really liking his short stories, however. Well, maybe Gollancz will get smart and put together a bundle.

That would be great, but I'm not holding my breath. He does really good speculative science fiction, and I suppose once my TBR is more under control I might well pick up a few even at their current prices.

I'm reading a Scientific American article from their latest issue entitled "The Shadow Web" about the efforts of digital activists to "build an alternative network that can never be blocked, filtered, or shut down." The article is by Julian Dibbel. While I would like to see an alternative to the World Wide Web, if it were to be taken over by big business, as the WWW increasingly is, I think the purpose would be defeated. Still, one can hope, and it would be interesting to see an international communication medium that no government could block or filter. The downside, or so it seems to me, would be that people whose intentions are less than benign would have free reign, even more-so than they do now.

I just finished "L'Auberge" by Julia Stagg yesterday. It was the most heart warming and funny book I read for a long time. Easy but nice read, not "literature" with capital "L" but I certainly will reread it and keep it. Well written. It is in English but I read it translated.
I post a link because of reviews if you are curious.